TikTok denies report of Chinese officials looking at sale of app to Elon Musk

After a suggestion that Chinese officials were looking at a possibility where Elon Musk could acquire the US operations of TikTok, a rep for the app has denied the report.

Bloomberg Newsr first reported on Monday that they are “evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok if the company fails to fend off a controversial ban on the short-video app.”

The report cited people familiar with the matter, but just a day later a rep for TikTok denied this in reply to a request for comment by Variety.

“We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” the source is quoted as saying.

The entrepreneur already owns X, previously Twitter, after he acquired the company in 2022.

The decisions around TikTok’s fate will conclude in the coming days as the ban is set to take effect on January 19 after the government brought in a new law due to national security concerns.

Its fate is in the hands of the Supreme Court which could issue a ruling stopping it from taking effect. The court heard arguments in an emergency appeal from TikTok on Friday, January 10 as they aimed to find a way to block the law.

TikTok and ByteDance argued that the law violates the First Amendment rights of the 170 million U.S. users on the platform.

While the company has presented its case, the Supreme Court hasn’t yet made any movement on potentially stopping the ban as the days tick on.

With the looming date just days away, it’s becoming increasingly likely that the platform will be shut down in the United States after months of back-and-forth about the topic.

If enacted on Sunday, the law that has been passed will force intermediary companies like Apple and Google to stop providing access to the platform.

This will result in people being unable to download the app if they don’t already have it, but it will possibly remain on phones if it has already been installed.

The law will ban those companies from letting users receive any updates to the app which could lead to it becoming more unstable as time progresses.

Featured Image: AI-generated via Grok

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